Arlen Erdahl - Personal Life

Personal Life

Arlen and his wife, Ellen, now reside in Burnsville, Minnesota. The couple had six children and fourteen grandchildren. His twin brother, Lowell O. Erdahl, is a former ELCA Synod Bishop of the Saint Paul Area Synod.

Arlen Erdahl has dedicated his life to public leadership and service, with an emphasis on servant leadership. His service ethic perhaps began during his childhood on a Minnesota farm where helping each other was a vital part of the community fabric. This service ethic continued in roles as U.S. Army corporal, farmer, state legislator, Minnesota Secretary of State and Public Service Commissioner, U.S. Congressman, presidential appointee in leadership roles in both the U.S. Peace Corps and Department of Energy, Minnesota International Health Volunteers Executive Director and current leadership roles with the Minnesota United Nations Association and the Nobel Peace Prize Forum. Erdahl has learned, served and led people throughout his long list of educational and professional accomplishments and public service roles…

• B.A., St. Olaf College, Northfield, 1953

• Farmer, 1953-1970

• United States Army, 1954-1956

• Minnesota House of Representatives, 1963-1970

• M.P.A., Harvard University (Bush Foundation Fellow), 1966

• Congressional Fellow, Washington, D.C. (Bush Foundation Fellow), 1967-1968

• Minnesota Secretary of State, 1970-1974

• Minnesota Public Service Commission, 1975-1978

• Member of U.S. Congress, serving on the Foreign Affairs, Small Business, and Education and Labor Committees, 1978-1982

• Country Director, United States Peace Corps, Jamaica, 1983-1985

• Associate Director, United States Peace Corps, Washington, D.C., 1986-1989

• Principal Deputy/Acting Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy, 1989-1993

• Executive Director, Minnesota International Health Volunteers, 1994-1999

Born on February 27, 1931, Arlen and his twin brother Lowell (former bishop for the St. Paul Area synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) grew up on their family farm near Blue Earth, MN. They later both attended St. Olaf College, graduating in 1953. Arlen then served in the U.S Army from 1954-1956, service that included an extended tour of duty in Japan during the last months of the Korean War.

After returning from the Army, he worked on the family farm and started his family with his wife Ellen. Erdahl began his long career in elected public service in 1962 when he was elected to the Minnesota State Legislature, where he served for eight years. During this time, he became one of the four original Bush Foundation Fellows, earning a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University and serving as a Congressional Fellow in the offices Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR) and future President Gerald Ford (R-MI), who at that time was Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, both of whom became life-long friends and mentors.

Erdahl was elected Minnesota Secretary of State in 1970, appointed by Governor Wendell Anderson to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in 1975 and elected to Congress from Minnesota’s First Congressional district in 1978. He had presidential appointments in leadership roles in the Peace Corps, first as Country Director in Jamaica in 1983 and then as Associate Director of the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C. in 1986. He received another Presidential appointment in 1989 to serve as Principal Deputy/Acting Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy. He is honored and grateful to have served either in Congress or Presidential appointments under the administrations of Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Erdahl returned to Minnesota in 1993 and served as the Executive Director of Minnesota International Health Volunteers, a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving health of women, children and their communities around the world.

In “retirement,” Erdahl has continued his public service and leadership for the United Nations Association of Minnesota, Nobel Peace Prize Forum Executive Committee, Minnesota chapter of People to People, Minneapolis Lodge of the Sons of Norway and Growth & Justice. In 1999 he won the Twin Cities International Citizen Award, an informal joint project of the Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the Counties of Hennepin and Ramsey. In July, 2004, Erdahl was a member of a delegation of six former U.S. Congressmen who visited Kyiv and cities throughout the Kharkiv, Poltava, and Sumy oblasts to observe the historic election process in Ukraine. He received the Hubert H. Humphrey Public Leadership award in 2011.

Even after all of his public leadership experiences in Minnesota, Washington, D.C., and Jamaica and his travels around the world, Erdahl still considers himself a farmer from Blue Earth, MN. When first elected to public office in 1962, a farm neighbor advised that he should always remember where he came from – and he always has. Never overly impressed with titles, neither his own nor those of others, he values his title as a former farmer as much as a former Member of Congress and treats all people with genuine respect and dignity. During his years in public service, he developed life-long friendships with mutual respect regardless of party affiliation, ideological or cultural differences, title or station in life. He still maintains a friendship with a couple whom he met and exchanged language lessons with during his Army service in Japan more than 50 years ago. During a visit to the U.S. Capitol long after his service in Congress, he greeted a guard near the House chamber by name and shared a laugh about an inside joke they had almost 20 years earlier. He is as comfortable and engaged in conversations with state, national and world leaders as he is with farm neighbors. In fact, during an audience with Pope John Paul II on a Congressional Delegation visit to Rome, he and His Holiness discussed their common backgrounds growing up in rural farming communities.

During his government service, Erdahl distinguished himself by focusing on principles and sound policy rather than on politics and personalities. In a time when politics more often divides than unites people, he still provides an excellent example of working across ideologies to focus on people and their needs. He has a genuine interest and appreciation for diverse peoples and cultures and the humility to engage people as individuals, regardless of positions or titles. He is also passionate about his faith and his family. Perhaps the titles that he treasures above all others are those of husband, father and grandfather. His life of public leadership represents a more civil, measured and more reasonable public discourse and a time when elected officials could vigorously disagree about the merits of an issue without being disagreeable. Arlen Erdahl is a true statesmen.